1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device. In particular, the present invention relates to a semiconductor device that includes a photodiode and is mold-sealed with a molding resin such that the molding resin does not cover the light receiving region of the photodiode; and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disc players are widely used for playing data recorded on optical discs such as CD-R (compact disc recordable) and DVD-R (digital versatile disk recordable).
Such an optical disc player includes an irradiation unit for irradiating a data recording surface of an optical disc with laser light (hereinafter, referred to as “light”) for reading data; an optical pickup for receiving reflected light from the data recording surface that reflects the light from the irradiation unit and outputting data signals in accordance with the intensity of the received light; and a signal processing circuit for subjecting the data signals from the optical pickup to predetermined signal processing to produce signals that can be displayed with displays and the like.
The optical pickup has, in its light receiving portion, a photo detector integrated circuit (PDIC) including a photodiode. The photodiode functions as a photoelectric conversion element for converting received light into electric signals.
For the purpose of protecting semiconductor elements in such a PDIC from an externally applied impact, dust, moisture in the ambient atmosphere, and the like, the PDIC is packaged by sealing the PDIC with an epoxy resin or the like such that the light receiving region of a photodiode is not covered by the epoxy resin or the like (For example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-017715).
A semiconductor device such as the packaged PDIC above is typically manufactured by bonding a substrate including semiconductor elements such as a photodiode onto a lead frame serving as a base; then conducting wire bonding by bonding the terminals of a PDIC to the terminals on the lead frame with metal wires; and subsequently loading the lead frame including the PDIC into a mold with a predetermined shape and filling the mold with a sealing resin liquefied by heating.